THE PRAIRIE EDITOR: What In The World Is Going On?

Let’s take a quick review of some very recent, and
apparently unconnected, events in the world.

In Brazil, considered a successful and prospering
democracy after decades of military rule, high inflation
and slow growth, a million protesters against the
government have appeared in the streets of major cities.

In Turkey, the lone Moslem democracy in the Middle East,
and also recently prospering, hundreds of thousands of
protesters against the government have appeared in the
streets of major cities.

 In Egypt, more than a year after street protesters led to
the overthrow of the authoritarian Mubarak regime,
protesters again appear in the streets of Cairo, defying
the new Moslem Brotherhood authoritarian regime.

In Russia, the semi-authoritarian, semi-democratic
successor to the Soviet dictatorship, street demonstrators
protesting against President Putin have appeared.

In Bulgaria, thousands of protesters went to the streets of
the capital Sofia to condemn the controversial appointment
of a new secret service chief, and the Bulgarian parliament
promptly and unanimously reversed itself to satisfy the
protesters.

In England, numbers of protesters, most of them young
and many of them from the English Defense League,
continually demonstrate against the neo-terrorist wave
sweeping the U.K. in recent years as large numbers of
immigrants have moved into British urban areas. [It is
interesting to note that the establishment British press
(quite leftist) tries to portray these protesters as “far
right” in much the same way the U.S. old media (quite
leftist) establishment has tried to mislabel the U.S. tea
party movement as far to the right.]

What distinguishes these protesters from the usual fringe
groups on the far left is that apparently a great many of
those protesting are ordinary middle class citizens who
normally don’t join protests, but are frustrated by what is
happening in their countries, and what their leaders are
doing. Many of them are politically centrist, conservative
and even moderately liberal. Some of them are nationalists
(a dirty word these days among the politically-correct).

In each case, the protests mentioned above reflect local
conditions and local grievances. It is too soon to say that
they are right or wrong, but that they have appeared at all
is a signal of some kind that should bear watching.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 2013 by Barry Casselman. All rights reserved.